Tindall, who recently married the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips, was a spectator at the 'Mad Midget Weekender' along with a number of other squad members. Pictures posted on the bar's Facebook site show several England players in extremely relaxed mood but a team official insisted the night out had the management's blessing.

"Mike and several of the players were enjoying an evening out after he had led the team to a hard-earned victory over Argentina," said a team spokesman. "Like all the lads he plays for England with a massive amount of passion and he was relaxing after a tough match."

The Sun reported that the group were "watching a light-hearted dwarf-throwing contest" when "scores of women made a beeline for the strapping lads". A "source" told the paper: "One particularly beautiful blonde went straight for Mike. But rather than reject her advances, unfortunately he was extremely responsive. Phillips, along with some of the other players' wives and families, are due to arrive in New Zealand on Monday.

"They were flirting with each other and getting very touchy-feely. Then they went into the doorway, where the girl gestured Mike towards her chest. She pulled his head towards her breasts and she rubbed the back of his head as she did so." The paper said there was no suggestion the pair left the bar together.

Rich Deane, the Altitude Bar manager, insisted via email that the players had been perfectly well behaved, pointing out that the dwarf event had been misinterpreted. "Firstly there was no dwarf throwing – that's just not cool!" he wrote. "Secondly there was no scandal by any of the English rugby players that we saw. They were great lads, not throwing the midgets, it was all light-hearted good humoured fun! This is the tabloids taking photos out of context and telling silly stories."

England were caught up in a high-profile sex scandal on their last visit to New Zealand in 2008 and the team manager Martin Johnson made clear before the squad departed for the World Cup that he expected all his players to behave responsibly. "We speak about that whenever we go away and we'll do that again when we hit the ground," said Johnson last month. "We have got to be careful. It is a different world to what it was 20 years ago. I remember going to New Zealand as a British Lion in 1993 and the boys had good fun but they have got to be careful not to put themselves and their team mates at risk."